Seven Swords

Chapter 59

And then he fell forward, into the dark.

'Now?' Thane asked.

Irissa nodded. Kendric's sword blows, wild and yet guided to their retreating target, had forced the Hunter's hindquarters to back into the black gash from Without. Geronfrey clutched an obsidian hilt with both gloved hands, trying to conjure a blade to replace the one broken

by Kendric's sword.

Kendric's sword still grew from his fist, but its bright gleam was faltering, separating into the vapid, misty colors of a rainbow seen through clouds. Kendric himself was falling slowly, to his knees, to his face. The hole to Without puckered suddenly and sucked the Hunter and Geronfrey through. It sealed shut, presented

a bland, flat black face to the clearing. 'What's wrong?' Javelle cried, reaching her father even before Thane. 'He was winning-!'

They gathered around him and together managed to pry

his fingers from the still-warm sword hilt and turn him on his back. 'He has the sword!' Javelle told herself, the world around

her. 'Why has he fallen? He has the rejoined sword - he should live forever.'

Irissa had sunk on her knees beside him, shocked to

silence. Kendric lay as one dead. She had seen him thus before, when the poison had first taken him. She had seen him throw off this malady to come in search of them, braced by the Bloodstone powder Scyvilla had administered to him.

Now that preservative was gone and so was the temporary strength lent by the sword. Even Geronfrey was gone. And Kendric, too, would soon be going...

"What is it? Thane shook Irises's shoulder, shook her

until her faculty of speech was jolted loose again.

Objavelle, the sword was for his future longevity. It

cannot affect the present polson, other than to silay its con

sequences awhile it gave him strength enough to repulse

Gerontrey As for the poison - If only Neva and livanis

were here! They could leech the teint from his veins 'Can't we? Javelle asked. frises shook her head. If I could have banished the toxin, don't you think I would have done it before leaving

Rengerth? But we are so close! Thane pled. "We have the sword,

We have reunited the two swords and ourselves, I kno I know, Irisss mourned. 'I know.' She reached to touch

Kendric's face. It was steel cold. "Felabbat she called in a voice of utter command. Both cats came instantly, meekly. The old one sniffed

long at Kendric's pallid lips. The young one moved on tentative feet around his head. "The venom springs from the black water underlying all the worlds, Pelabba the Elder diagnosed. It has worked long. Were he not so

strong, he would be dead by now. Had we Pinorian's touchstone Irissa snapped her head to the pathetic creature col lapsed against a pine tree trunk. Its central eye glowed green in response, then faded.

"You see a remnant of the touchstone's power, Pelabba the Younger said mournfully. "That's why the beast had three eyes. But its contention with Geronfrey has robbed it of all but a shadow of strength.'

I am weary of shadows, Javelle raged, rocking a little and unaware of it. Shadows bring nothing but death and destruction. Her palms pounded impotently on the serpent banding her forehead. 'My Overstone circlet is merely a shadow of my mother's Iridesium band, as I am the more shadow of my mother. Had it had I - any

independent powers, it, I, could save Father.' "How? Irissa's hands caught Javelle's wrists, pulled her hands from her head.

Javelle's anguish was beyond easy answers. 'It,.. bears

your poison."

My poison?' Irissa feared she was losing not only a

helpmate's life but a daughter's sanity, 'I bear no poison.'

'Not now,' lavelle moaned. 'But you did, years ago... in, in Edanvant. Remember when Neva and Ilvanis leeched the poisoned borgia from you? They discharged it ... into the Overstone. Hence the serpent inside it that

was born with me and became my circlet has always

borne it.'

How could that help Father?' Thane was scathing in

his helplessness. 'We should poison him again, is that

it?'

'No.' Javelle said, 'but if the snake had spent its poison,

it could leech the taint from Father. But it's not free- it's

still tainted.'

They sat and absorbed Javelle's jumbled guilt and

sorrow, Even Eeryon came over, as if drawn by her height

ened emotions.

"This is dying?" he asked softly, looking down on Kendric.

'Look at us,' Irissa said, lifting stark silver eyes to him,

"This is dying,'

Eeryon crouched beside Kendric. As his profile bent to see him better, Irissa caught a fleeting likeness between two aquiline noses and shuddered. She would have reached to push the shadow boy away, but his face was troubled and a darkness was spreading in the pupils of his aquamarine eyes that she couldn't deny, 'It is only dim - death,' Eeryon said, 'I think I've seen

it. It doesn't hurt-'

'Only the leaving and the left hurt,' Irissa said. 'He

cannot see us now, feel us now,' 'I think you're wrong.' Eeryon's voice had intensified. 'He feels it all. You simply don't notice him anymore."

Before Irissa and Thane could respond to Eeryon's callous disregard of their grief, he looked at Javelle. You said it was like Without, like going home.'

She stared uncomprehendingly.

'Like not... feeling anything.' Eeryon's eyes turned

inward, swelling into utter darkness, like bis father's transformed gaze.

He nodded, his gilt hair dulling even as it moved. The

velvet of his garh softened to shadowy gray, peled to

the color of his skin. His skin melted, dissolved on the

Eeryon was no longer there, Their silence rang as heavy as their speech had moments

before. Irissa clasped Kendric's limp hand as if to preserve

him from a similar vanishment. 'He's gone!' Javelle's heartsick madness turned to passing marvel,

'Just like him,' Thane said after a pause. "Coward. Can't see a quest through to the bitter end. I'll try my magic, Mother, I may be able to, to

Irissa shook her head. She could feel the life seeping from the hand in hers. On the central finger the color jeweled cabochon was turning a cold, dead gray.

"Too late,' Irissa said, her voice as gray as the ringstone. Javelle suddenly fell over on her heels. 'Oh!' she cried. 'Something pushed my shoulders!

She tried to rise, but was knocked back again. Her face jerked sideways as though struck. Her screams were not

so much from pain as from surprise and disbelief. Irissa rose to her knees but kept custody of Kendric's hand. Thane stood, prepared to deal with the new threat,

once he could see it.

Javelle scrambled away from them without rising, using her hands to escape a bewildering attack. Tears were streaming down her face, hoarded tears meant for her father, but shaken loose by the bizarre moment. Suddenly, she stopped, lifting a hand to her brow. The

circlet it's-' The serpent came alive so fast no one saw it strike. One moment it was coiled docilely around Javelle's forehead; the next it was unclasped, its sleek head and upper body snapping once at empty air.

It sprang fully free and wiggled in midair like a whip being snapped by an invisible wielder. A bright green